Bengaluru: Upskilling platform Great Learning says its $600 million cash-and-stock sale to Byju’s in 2021 was a financial deal, not a strategic integration, and that it remained operationally separate even as the parent firm slipped into a financial meltdown over the next three years.
The company’s management also retained control throughout that period, helping it preserve its culture, cost discipline and growth trajectory, said Arjun Nair, co-founder and chief operating officer of Great Learning, in an interview with Mint.
“At that time, all our competitors were also raising a lot of money, and we were operating in that environment. We were bootstrapped until that point. In 2021, when we had the need to raise funds, we thought it was a good deal,” said Nair.
Founded in 2013, Great Learning offers courses in technology, data science, artificial intelligence (AI) and related professional skills. Its learner base spans working professionals and corporate learners, and it has expanded its course portfolio over the years as the demand for upskilling has grown.
The edtech firm remained independent until 2021, when it was acquired by Byju’s in a cash-and-stock deal. By then, Byju’s had also announced plans to infuse another $400 million into the company. But Byju’s then ran into a prolonged crisis over financial management and debt, triggering lender action, restructuring efforts and a wider unravelling of the group’s structure.
The deal later fed into Byju’s wider debt crisis because the Singapore Great Learning unit sat inside the offshore collateral tied to Byju’s $1.2 billion term loan. GLAS Trust, the administrative and collateral agent for those term-loan lenders, stepped in as lenders moved to enforce control over the overseas assets, and financial and risk advisory firm Kroll was appointed receiver in October 2023 to take control of Great Learning Education Pte. Ltd, the Singapore entity.
Mint reported in December 2025 that Great Learning's co-founder Mohan Krishna Lakhamraju later bought back the company's India unit from lenders for about $10 million, far below the original acquisition value.
Nair said the acquisition still made sense at the time because the company needed capital to compete. “It was still good to have that money at that point. Whatever got infused into the company helped, because otherwise we would have been competing against very well-funded companies, both globally and domestically,” he said.
He said no one could have predicted what would follow. “At that point, nobody could foresee it. So, I do not look back and say the decision was terrible in every respect. With what we knew then, the infusion did help us compete,” said Nair.
He further said Great Learning deliberately stayed separate from Byju’s. “We always ran Great Learning separately. There was no integration and no strategic integration. We had said we would retain control for three years, and we retained control throughout. Even though they had equity, we retained control of management and the entire leadership team stayed on,” he said.
“We are proud of what we built and the discipline we have around costs, revenue, teams and culture. That never changed. It was difficult to get out of the situation, but I think we are out of it now," Nair said. "There is still a shareholder there, but as things stand now, we are in a good place. We are continuing to be profitable, continuing to grow, and we will see how the rest plays out.”
Great Learning reported a 5% growth in revenue and 191% growth in operating profit in FY25, with a revenue of ₹1,039 crore and operating profit of ₹40 crore. The firm now offers 1,750 programmes and has over 13.8 million learners across over 170 countries.
Great Learning’s India and Singapore businesses remain structurally linked through an offshore holding setup, and the company reports consolidated numbers rather than standalone India figures, Nair said. This means the latest improvement in revenue and operating profit reflects performance across the two units, not just the India business, he said.
After the July 2021 takeover by Byju’s, Great Learning bought Northwest Executive Education in May 2022 in a cash-and-stock deal that media reports then pegged at about $100 million. Northwest is an executive education provider that partners with universities and business schools to deliver short-format and certificate-style programmes for working professionals in Singapore and other markets.
Filings with India's registrar of companies show Great Learning Education Services Pvt. Ltd remains plugged into an offshore holding structure: its annual return for fiscal 2025 lists Singapore-based Powerahead Pte Ltd as its holding company with 100% shareholding.
The Indian company’s last annual general meeting was held on 25 September 2025, when shareholders adopted the audited standalone and consolidated financial statements for the year ended March 2025.
